Texas State Cheerleaders Win 2015 World Championship

The rising star of Texas State is shining bright following a first-place win in the All Girl Team division of the World University Cheerleading competition held in Orlando, Florida.

The world competition began Jan. 18, and the team performed a two-minute-30-second routine consisting of both cheer and dance. The university competed alongside Japan, China, Chile, Columbia, Germany and Norway, said Shaina Mayberry, head cheer coach.

Mayberry said the team also competed in the national competition Jan. 17, which was broadcast on ESPN. The team competed against the University of Oklahoma, the University of Mississippi, the University of South Florida and the University of Alabama during the national competition. Texas State did not place in the national competition, according to the Universal Cheerleaders Association and Universal Dance Association College Cheerleading and Dance Team National Championship website.

“We did well, (and) we’re really happy with what our performance was,” Mayberry said. “We had some very stiff competition, and we held our own.”

The team has won the national competition three times before and is recognized around the country, she said.

Mayberry hopes more publicity and advertising will increase awareness about the university’s cheer team so the performers can be “better contenders” with Big 10 universities.

“There (were) a lot of awesome schools like Alabama and Indiana who were incredibly amazing and got first and second,” said Payton Linn, health and wellness junior. “We weren’t up to par, necessarily, with them, but we definitely did really well compared to last year and the year before.”

The team trained for the world championship throughout winter break, practicing the routine and working on stamina, Linn said.

“We were training so hard for this at the end of October, and then we had two-a-days in December,” said Briana Pavlicek, exercise and sports science senior. “It was definitely worth it being here (on campus) throughout the whole break, and nobody else (was) here.”

Linn said the team was excited about the win and each member performed the routine well. The team has not won a world competition in Paylicek’s four years at the university. The win was a “huge accomplishment.”

Paylicek said last year was the first time the team competed in the world competition.

“It was really fun interacting with Japan, Puerto Rico, Columbia and even the American teams because we got to see what they were doing these past few months, how they are in their culture and how they interact with cheerleading,” Linn said.

Mayberry said the world competition is a factor in the initiative to put cheer in the Olympics.

“All that stuff isn’t exactly finalized, but I did hear around the rumor mill that they were looking to possibly exhibition for 2016 and possibly try to be an actual sport in 2020,” Mayberry said.

Mayberry does not know whether cheer will participate in the Winter or Summer Olympics.

The World University competition is the only opportunity college cheerleaders have to participate at the international level, she said.

The team was the only Texas university competing both nationally and internationally of those who attended the competition, she said.

“They have competition every year,” Mayberry said. “Again, what makes this competition our girls just won huge is that it puts Texas State on the map, so we’re a recognized school again.”

Rebecca Banks is a reporter for the University Star where this story originally published. It is reprinted here through a news partnership between the University Star and Corridor News